Men in Black 3

Logline: Agent J travels back in time to MIB's early years in the 1960s, to stop an alien from assassinating his friend Agent K and changing history.

Cast: Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Jemaine Clement, Emma Thompson, Michael Stuhlbarg, Alice Eve

Directed by: Barry Sonnenfeld

Men in Black 3 continues the franchise 10 years after the second film was released. I think this is largely due to the fact that many people were displeased with the sequel and only time could make the bad taste fade away. With Will Smith not doing anything new since Seven Pounds in 2008, fans of him might pop up just because they hadn't seen him in so long... 

Guilty as charged.

So, was it worth it to add another installment to the Men in Black series?

The movie starts right away by introducing it's antag. Enter Boris.

Boris is a huge, scruffy, human looking alien with goggles. He is so dangerous that he earned himself his own prison on the moon to keep him far away from Earth. They couldn't really have made this character to look, feel, or seem more Bad Ass without overdoing it. His nickname is Boris the Animal. 

So, what do you know, NASA or whoever operates the space shuttles to go to this prison, allows a woman to bring him a birthday cake for his birthday and 40th year being locked up in chains in a dark room. Yes, someone this dangerous is allowed to have cake once and awhile. In the cake is a little alien helper of Boris' and it quickly dismantles the guards and unlocks Boris' chains and body suit. Sloppy, but a decent introduction to a good villain none-the-less.

Agent K & J are going about their business as usual - J continuing to be the jokester and K continuing to be the stiff. They visit a Chinese restaurant because the owner is serving alien fish instead of Earth's fish and shit hits the fan. Boris shows up and it is revealed that K put him in that prison on the moon in the 60s and he regrets not killing him now that he is back and on the loose.

They head back to their homes and all of a sudden, K turns to dust.

Two problems with the first Act of this movie.

1) The time from the beginning of the film up until Agent J travels back in time is 36 minutes.

2) Agent O believes K was alive just one day prior after accepting his death 40 years ago because J has a craving for chocolate milk. This is how she decides it is necessary to send him back in time to save K's life...

First of all, the introduction was waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long. Sure, they introduced Boris. Sure, they had a decent alien action scene in the Chinese restaurant - but there were 36 minutes of scenes that didn't push the story forward. Yes, investigating a crashed space ship & investigating a fishy restaurant (no pun intended) all leads to them finding Boris, but it seems like this happens all by coincidence. Even so, it takes way too long to make this happen. 36 minutes to get to the logline is brutal.

Second of all, that's just sloppy writing. I HATE it when writers make things up for the convenience of the plot. Agent J walks into MIB headquarters and K is gone; he thinks everyone is playing a prank on him. After speaking with O he says things that only K would say, which is impossible because K supposedly died in 1969. So, to prove that O believes him, the writers implement the fact that a craving for chocolate milk indicates a certain brain wave that would make J's story believable. C'mon. Yes, this is a movie about aliens, yes I don't expect it to be realistic, but this type of stuff doesn't cut it for me. I guess they were already 33 minutes in without time travel yet, so they just rushed out of present time as fast as they could, any way they could. So now we have the most sophisticated prison in the world infiltrated by a woman with a cake & Agent J's time travel supported due to a craving of chocolate milk.

Seems like MIB 2 all over again no?

Well it isn't. The story actually takes a huge turn for the better at this very moment.

At a runtime of 1h and 45min, we have about 1h and 11min of a solid film. It takes awhile to get there, and there are some holes to forgive along the way, but it is worth it.

J travels to 1969, steals cars and does anything he can to get to MIB headquarters. The HQ is similar but everyone is dressed in old attire - even the aliens. This is where we meet the young version of Agent K who is much more involved and lively, but still maintains the same tone and mannerisms as his older self. Josh Brolin nails this character. It's difficult to match someone else's character that has already been through two movies and it's even more difficult to add little twists to his personality. Brolin does both really well.

This is where the fun starts. They begin to work together. Numerous times Agent J asks K, "what happened to you man?" He responds with, "I don't know, it hasn't happened yet."

They have to stop Boris based on the little knowledge that J has from being in the future, without changing anything from the past so that everything stays the same in present day. Pretty clear goal. They work together trying to figure out where Boris is going to attempt an alien invasion. Since this has already happened in the past, there is a clear time frame set (a space shuttle launch) as to when this whole thing is going to go down when they figure it out. This isn't long from the point in time they're at - and if they don't complete their mission, Agent K dies. Stakes are raised to the max, time frame is set so there is a sense of urgency; characters don't float around doing nothing. Loved it.

Not going to give away the ending or how they get there.

There are only two things that I can say..

They meet a man named Griffin on their journey who is an absolute cook, but is definitely memorable for being funny and unique.

&

The movie reveals something at the end which explains a lot about the franchise.

So, was it worth it?

$615 million at the Box Office says yes, but so does the movie itself. I always seem to find conflict and inconsistencies in time travel movies, but not with this one. Except for the first 36 minutes, I enjoyed the story and it took me back to when I was a child to a MIB that I knew and loved. So yes, it was worth it because it was way better than the sequel and now people have something to remember this series by rather than being left with distaste.

A nice installment that has revived a popular franchise from the beginning of the millennium. Fun, action packed, with great characters, an awesome villain, and an excellent performance from Josh Brolin.

7.3/10